Fox picks up 'Absolutely Fabulous' pilot

1:03 PM PST 1/23/2009
by
Nellie Andreeva
,
AP

Original British star Jennifer Saunders executive producing

It's "Ab Fab" time at Fox.

The network has handed a pilot pickup to "Absolutely Fabulous," an U.S. version of the cult British comedy about a neurotic fashion publicist, Edina, and her best friend Patsy, an outrageous fashion editor, who drive Eddie's sensible teen daughter, Saffron, up the wall with their wild behavior.

Christine Zander penned the set in Los Angeles adaptation, which is produced by Sony Pictures TV, BBC Worldwide Prods. and Tantamount.

Zander is exec producing the pilot with Jennifer Saunders, who wrote and starred in the original series as Edina, as well as BBC Worldwide Prods.' Ian Moffitt and Tantamount's Mitch Hurwitz, Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum.

"Ab Fab" marks the latest pilot pickup for Fox, which in the past week ordered four other comedy pilots, "Walorsky," "The Station," "Two Dollar Beer" and "Sons of Tucson" and three drama pilots, "Maggie Hill," "Human Target" and an untitled reincarnation project.

Fox originally picked up the project in the fall with a script commitment plus penalty. There have been several attempts to develop "Ab Fab" for American audiences, but this is the first one to go to pilot.